Dinosaurs
The Dinosaurs are one of the eight factions from the Core Set. Cards The Dinosaurs have the usual 10 minions and 10 actions. The total minion base power (even without counting any abilities) is unusually high at 32 or an average of 3.2 per minion compared to the usual 30 and 3. When you consider the additional powerups from abilities (War Raptor, Armor Stego, Agumentation, etc.), they are easily the highest power-per-minion faction from the Core Set. (See also Robots.) Minions 1x King Rex - power 7 - (no ability) 2x Laseratops - power 4 - Destroy a minion of power 2 or less on this base. 3x Armor Stego - power 3 - Ongoing: Has +2 power during other players' turns. 4x War Raptor - power 2 - Ongoing: Gains +1 power for each War Raptor on this base (including this one). Actions 2x Augmentation - One minion gains +4 power until the end of your turn. 2x Howl - Each of your minions gains +1 power until the end of your turn. 1x Natural Selection - Choose one of your minions on a base. Destroy a minion there with less power than yours. 1x Upgrade - Play on a minion. Ongoing: This minion has +2 power. 1x Tooth and Claw... and Guns - Play on a minion. Ongoing: If an ability would affect this minion, destroy this card and the ability does not affect this minion. 1x Survival of the Fittest - Destroy the lowest-power minion (you choose in case of a tie) on each base with a higher-power minion. 1x Wildlife Preserve - Play on a base. Ongoing: Your minions here are not affected by other players' actions. 1x Rampage - Reduce the breakpoint of a base by the power of one of your minions on that base until the end of the turn. Bases * Jungle Oasis * Tar Pits Strategy As the official description states, Dinosaurs with Laser Guns are great at power, but little else. It contains the highest natural strength in the game for a regular minion in the form of King Rex. it also has Armor Stego, which is basically a power of 5 on your opponents turns (which will be at least half the time, and will protect it from effects that would destroy a minion of 3 or lower). War Raptors are the standard 2 power minion, but they instantly become a power of 3 and easily boost up to a power of 4 or more. Laseratops, meanwhile, has a straight power of 4 with the abiliity to destroy a minion of 2 or lower. Dino minions are great. However, Dino actions are rather weak. There are a few decent actions of note. Natural Selectiona nd Surivial of the Fittest are both decent destruction pieces, and Wildlife preserve and Tooth and Claw...and Guns are okay at protecting minions. The only truely great action card in the set however, is Rampage. Reducing the breakpoint of a base by the (modified!) power of one of your minions on that base is fantastic and will almost always take a base when used at the right time. Synergy Dinosaurs are not the greatest teammates. In fact, they have little to offer except their raw power. More often, it will be other decks that work well with Dinosaurs than the other way around. Keep in mind that Laseratops MUST destroy a minion of power 2 or less if one exists, even if it is your own. Ther will never happen to another dinosaur (War Raptor is instantly power 3). So factions with low power should watch out for this. Aliens - Since the focus of the Alien faction is generally to gain VP with the Invader, Dinosaurs does not offer much. However, if you would like to split your strategy and take some quick bases, Dinosurs are not an awful way to go. Zombies - Zombies have great synergy with most factions, but there is little you can do with Dinos. Ninjas - The two factions have a good amount of power and destruction that opponents will likely have a difficult time having any sort of unified front. Hidden Ninja + King Rex can be a surprisingly devestating force however. Pirates - Pirates and Dinos have little direct synergy, though their combo has no true weak points. In addition, Howl and Swashbuckling are identical, so now there are 3 of the same weaker card. Robots - Robots work well enough with Dinos, but watch out for Laseratops, as he can take out many of the weaker robots. Howl will be most useful with this faction, as Robots tend to have a lot of weaker units on a base. Tricksters - Ticksters work rather well with Dinosaurs, as playing multiple minions with Enshrouding Mist is perfect for Dinosaurs, and Survival of the Fittest with multiple Gremlins can work great. Destroying your own minions may seem counterproductive, but this is one of the few combos where it's easily viable. Wizards - Wizards and Dinos go together quite well. One complements the other as Dinos have raw strength and wizards have great abilities. While Augmentation by itself is okay, being able to play 2 of them at once with Chronomage or Archmage is a gamewinner. Or maybe Augmentation + Rampage on a King Rex! Summon to bring out several War Raptors at once, Sacrifice with King Rex, though it is a huge loss, lets you draw 7 cards, enough to turn a desperate situation around if needed. Ghost - Ghosts work fairly well with Dinos, but that is usually because Ghosts want the player to discard cards whenever possible, and the actions of the Dinosaurs aren't usually worth keeping. The Spirit's discard ability combined with the large amount of mediocre actions should plenty of destructive ammo. Steampunk - Steampunk is another faction that works pretty well with Dinos. Steampunk is all about using actions like Aggromotive and Rotary Slug Thrower to raise power. Combining with the natural strength of the Dinos, this combination is quite good at raw power, but little else. Bear Cavalry - Bear Cavalry minions also have very high natural power, so this combination has among the highest powr of all combinations, and Laseratops cannot destroy any of your minions. However, aside from power, there isn't much that Dinos add to the Bears. Plants - Plants are one of the better factions to play with Dinos. Blossom lets you play multiple War Raptors at once, and Sprouts or Venus Man Traps let you search your deck for them. Insta-Grow also lets more raw power sneak through, and plants provide enough options for destruction, drawing, and other effects to make dinos work quite well. Cthulu Cultists - Cultists true strength is about using actions to gain VP and passing Madness cards to opponents. Like Aliens, Dino Cultists require a split in strategy that can work, but it is quite dangerous. Elder Things - This deck is notable for one very deadly combination. Elder Thing + Rampage essentially adds 20 power to any base of your choice. It is a one shot technique, as neither faction is good at using cards from the discard pile, but it is so powerful that it can easily win games, Elder Things work quite well with Dinos. Innsmouth - Innsmouth has many, many weak minions, so Dinos would seem to go well with this faction. However, most of the actions rely on using weak minions. There are some strong points of using these two together, but it is difficult to effectively use this combo. Miskatonic University - Dinosaurs do not add anything to Miskatonic University except their raw power. The combination has little downsides however. Time Travelers - Time Travelers surprisingly have little to offer to Dinosaurs. As their main talent lies in reusing actions, and Dinosaurs do not have many worthwhile actions, this combination is not the best. Cyborg Apes - Dinosaurs have a few actions that can be played on minions, which is the apes strong point, so this works quite well. Again however, this leads to a deck with extremely high power and not all that much else. Super Spies - Spies work extremely well at searching through the deck for other cards, so the power of dinos work well with them. However, as several Spy cards let you use other actions when needed, Dinos are also risky. Shape Shifters - Shapeshifters is unpredictable as part of their power is determined by the opponents factions chosen. They have somewhat of a mixed bad with Dinos. Mimics work fantastic with King Rex, but G.E.L.F. cannot search for King Rex FAQ Q: When I play Laseratops, do I have to destroy a minion? Even my own minion? A: Short answer: yes. If there are one or more minions of power 2 or less on that base, You must target one of them for destruction, even if it's your own minion. However, if the minion you target cannot be destroyed (e.g. due to Tooth and Claw... and Guns), then the minion might not actually die. ---- Q: If I play War Raptor on a base where there is an enemy Leprechaun, can the War Raptor survive? A: Possibly. War Raptor's Ongoing ability activates before Leprechaun's on-play reaction begins testing its conditions. This means if the War Raptor you play is the third on that base, she will be power 5 and will be safe from the Leprechaun's ability which tests the War Raptors power after she becomes power 5. However, if the War Raptor isn't power 5 or more after resolving all applicable Ongoing abilities, then the Leprechaun will destroy her. ---- Q: Does Augmentation count as being played "on a minion" on the turn it is played such as with Furious George or Clyde 2.0? A: No, because it doesn't say "Play on a minion.". ---- Q: If I play Howl and then play another minion afterward, does the new minion get +1 power from the Howl? A: TBD. ---- Q: What all does Tooth and Claw... and Guns block? A: Probably a lot more than the designers intended. See the term Affect for a discussion. ---- Q: How does Survival of the Fittest work? A: For each base that has at least two minions: Do all the minions here have the same power? If so, do nothing at that base. Otherwise, what is the lowest power of a minion there? Choose one of the minions there that has that power (possibly your own minion). Once you've done this for all the bases, destroy all the minions you chose. ---- Q: Does Wildlife Preserve protect my minions against other player's minion abilities? A: Unfortunately no. This means Tiger Assassin, Collector, and others can still target your minions. ---- Q: What happens if I play Rampage to reduce a base's breakpoint by the power a minion, but then in the same turn (still during Phase 2) I move the minion to a different base? Or what if I change the power of the minion after playing rampage? A: TBD.